Merged Steve Jobs has died.

[AdMan]

Jonathan Ive is described as the leading designer and conceptual mind behind the iMac, titanium and aluminum PowerBook G4, G4 Cube, MacBook, unibody MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Sounds like the 'designer' to me.

Of course I don't think he designed the processor - I believe Apple products have used both Intel and ARM processors. Neither of which, AFAIK, were designed by Jobs.

C'mon, Ive is reknowned in the industry as the guy behind Apple's innovative designs. For any common use of the word 'designer', he's it.

Certainly Jonathan Ive has been massively important in the design of Apple products in recent years. But take a look at this quote:

When I joined Apple the company was in decline. It seemed to have lost what had once been a very clear sense of identity and purpose. Apple had started trying to compete to an agenda set by an industry that had never shared its goals. While as a designer I was certainly closer to where the desicions were being made, but I was only marginally more effective or influential than I had been as a consultant. This only changed when Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple) returned to the company. By re-establishing the core values he had established at the beginning, Apple again pursued a direction which was clear and different from any other companies. Design and innovation formed an important part of this new direction.

Source.


It seems clear that without Jobs Ive wouldn't have been able to do what he has done at Apple.

 

[Ethan Thane Athen]

Certainly Jonathan Ive has been massively important in the design of Apple products in recent years. But take a look at this quote:



Source.


It seems clear that without Jobs Ive wouldn't have been able to do what he has done at Apple.

I am happy to credit Jobs with creating the environment that allowed Ive to deliver his designs and his obvious skill in recognising talent (and marketing the product). It's still Ive that came up with the designs that so many people drool over. Crediting Jobs for the design is like crediting Peter Grant for the songs of Led Zeppelin.

 

[uruk]

Yeah, remember all those great $250 tablet PCs when the iPad was introduced!

Oops my bad. The iPad is by no means a tabletPC which ran a full OS (WindowsXp) and cost about $2,000 to $4,000 bucks.

The iPad is closer to a PDA than a tabletPC.

Apple laptops and desktops on the other hand.........

 

[PhreePhly]

I wanted to write this yesterday, when I first heard the news, but RealLife(TM) got in the way. It's funny how I reacted to the news. I am decidedly not an Apple fanboi. I own one Apple product, a Gen 2 iPod Nano that was given to me as a gift, I have never been impressed with Apple's hyperbolic ad campaigns, and I would say that I suffered from an anti-RDF (just as irrational as the RDF, I admit).

I thought it pretty obvious that Jobs was pretty ill, given that a man as driven as he is stepped down as CEO of what was probably his greatest passion, Apple Computer, so I expected to hear of his passing in the fairly near future.

But, I have to say that I really felt a sad moment pass by. It was already a rainy, gloomy day here in Southern California, and upon hearing the news, it just seemed to get a bit more gloomy. The news came much sooner than I expected.

Jobs left a immovable mark on the tech industry. I also think that we will miss out on a few more "insanely great" moments because his vision is gone.

My condolences to his family.

Also, to any of you who worked for or are working for Apple, my condolences. This has to be difficult. He loved that company and you were all a big part of that.

 

[kajata]

Oops my bad. The iPad is by no means a tabletPC which ran a full OS (WindowsXp) and cost about $2,000 to $4,000 bucks.

The iPad is closer to a PDA than a tabletPC.

Yeah, but let's face it. Most people use the iPad for pretty much whatever they were doing on a PC. Surfing the web, updating facebook, office docs, email and games.

And it was something tons of people wanted, all the competitors copied and failed at until Amazon came up with a cheaper, less powerful alternative.

Apple laptops and desktops on the other hand.........

I'll grant you that but it has narrowed. The MacBook Air is pretty fairly-priced at $999 (for the base model).

And the two items that make up the bulk of their revenue, the iPad and iPhone, are priced in-line with the competition.

 

[Lamuella]

I am happy to credit Jobs with creating the environment that allowed Ive to deliver his designs and his obvious skill in recognising talent (and marketing the product). It's still Ive that came up with the designs that so many people drool over. Crediting Jobs for the design is like crediting Peter Grant for the songs of Led Zeppelin.

I'd say it's more like crediting George Martin for the songs of the Beatles. And frankly George Martin deserves a reasonable chunk of that credit.

 

[elgarak]

I wanted to write this yesterday, when I first heard the news, but RealLife(TM) got in the way. It's funny how I reacted to the news. I am decidedly not an Apple fanboi. I own one Apple product, a Gen 2 iPod Nano that was given to me as a gift, I have never been impressed with Apple's hyperbolic ad campaigns, and I would say that I suffered from an anti-RDF (just as irrational as the RDF, I admit).

I thought it pretty obvious that Jobs was pretty ill, given that a man as driven as he is stepped down as CEO of what was probably his greatest passion, Apple Computer, so I expected to hear of his passing in the fairly near future.

But, I have to say that I really felt a sad moment pass by. It was already a rainy, gloomy day here in Southern California, and upon hearing the news, it just seemed to get a bit more gloomy. The news came much sooner than I expected.

Jobs left a immovable mark on the tech industry. I also think that we will miss out on a few more "insanely great" moments because his vision is gone.

My condolences to his family.

Also, to any of you who worked for or are working for Apple, my condolences. This has to be difficult. He loved that company and you were all a big part of that.

I don't think I'm trapped in an RDF, or drank Kool-Aid. In my experience, it's the Apple-haters who are in there.

I did, and continue to, buy Apple products, because, after careful consideration, they are the best products to buy. Most of my acquaintances who have Apple products are the same.

I don't buy them just because, or because they're cool (though they are), or because his Steve-ness told me so with his (admittedly brilliant) marketing.

And yes, before I got my first Mac not too long ago, I thought Apple's marketing
was hyperbolic, but I have revised my opinion after having actually used quite a few products.

I do not buy everything Apple puts out; some products do not fit to me at all. I did buy some products that others have slashed mighty, like the iPod Shuffle without buttons. Simply because this little thing does everything that I did before on an iPod Nano. Why tinker with a display I never look at, or have buttons I never press? Strangely, I would never buy a current Nano, or a current Shuffle.

 

[BenBurch]

Yeah, remember all those great $250 tablet PCs when the iPad was introduced!

Good point.

And the only real competition to Apple on price now is Amazon. Another company that "gets it."

Yes, you can get fire sale tablets for less than an iPad, but nothing has sold well at the MSRP that was intended, which was usually more than you would pay for an iPad if the specs are similar, or not far below it when they are inferior.

 

[uruk]

Yeah, but let's face it. Most people use the iPad for pretty much whatever they were doing on a PC. Surfing the web, updating facebook, office docs, email and games.

True. But people were also doing that on netbooks before the ipad came out at about the same cost or less. The iPad just did away with the keyboard and gutted the OS to get more battery life.

And it was something tons of people wanted, all the competitors copied and failed at until Amazon came up with a cheaper, less powerful alternative.

I don't think it was so much "wanted" as we were told to "want it". That's pretty much what marketing is all about. And Steve was a master at it. Apple products sure are pretty.

I'll grant you that but it has narrowed. The MacBook Air is pretty fairly-priced at $999 (for the base model).

Still a little bit lofty in the price tag for comperable specs from the other guys

And the two items that make up the bulk of their revenue, the iPad and iPhone, are priced in-line with the competition.

That is true now. I recently upgraded my old iPhone 3Gs to a Samsung Galaxy S II for $199 which is comperable in specs to the new iPhone 4S (dual core processor, 16 gig Ram, 8 Mpixel camera, etc.) which will also go for $199. (16gig version)

 

[elgarak]

If Steve Jobs' abilities and contributions were so little as some people say they were, why do so many investors and business analysts fear that Apple cannot maintain its current success after he's gone?

Sent from my iPad via Tapatalk.

 

[Minoosh]

Never mind the cult of personality - I'm into the cult of easy, the cult of plug-n-play. Apple products pretty much taught me how to use them. My first computer was a Mac because it was compatible with everything at work. Everything worked great.

In a way it's a handicap because now nothing on a PC seems intuitive to me, and PCs are more common in my new field and in the world at large.

PCs make me feel dumb. Macs made me feel smart. In a way that feeling is the product. And my reverence doesn't have anything to do with Jobs, I just like feeling smart.

 

[Babbylonian]

If Steve Jobs' abilities and contributions were so little as some people say they were, why do so many investors and business analysts fear that Apple cannot maintain its current success after he's gone?

Because even on a good day, "investors and business analysts" don't know what they're talking about.

 

[PhreePhly]

I don't think I'm trapped in an RDF, or drank Kool-Aid. In my experience, it's the Apple-haters who are in there.

I did, and continue to, buy Apple products, because, after careful consideration, they are the best products to buy. Most of my acquaintances who have Apple products are the same.

I don't buy them just because, or because they're cool (though they are), or because his Steve-ness told me so with his (admittedly brilliant) marketing.

And yes, before I got my first Mac not too long ago, I thought Apple's marketing
was hyperbolic, but I have revised my opinion after having actually used quite a few products.

I do not buy everything Apple puts out; some products do not fit to me at all. I did buy some products that others have slashed mighty, like the iPod Shuffle without buttons. Simply because this little thing does everything that I did before on an iPod Nano. Why tinker with a display I never look at, or have buttons I never press? Strangely, I would never buy a current Nano, or a current Shuffle.

Your opinion is noted. Having used Apple products in the past, I disagree with your opinion. For me, they fail miserably on a cost-benefit analysis. That doesn't change the fact that I felt a strong sense of sadness at Jobs' passing.

 

[BenBurch]

... Having used Apple products in the past, I disagree with your opinion. For me, they fail miserably on a cost-benefit analysis. ...

I have had the opposite experience.

When I look at the amount of time I spend maintaining the Macs I have owned (many of them) and the amount of time I have spent maintaining the PCs I have owned (8 of them, including two right now, Linux machines don't count for this) I have to say that as I value my time at my discount billing rate ($40/hr), A windows PC quickly removes the cost difference and begins to be a bad deal.

Now, I had no experience with Vista or Windows-7 so far. I use XP Professional and XP Home on my two currently active machines.

Running Windows on a Mac in VMWare Fusion almost negates the maintenance deficit, however, as I can just revert to a good snapshot when it inevitably corrupts itself. Possibly running ESXi native and Windows in a VM would cure the maintenance issues as well, for the same reasons. I've only ever used Solaris under ESXi, though, so I have no ground truth here.

 

[Ocelot]

http://www.stephenfry.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs/

 

[Complexity]

I was never a fan of Jobs.

I think he took credit for several things that he wasn't responsible for.

He was pretty good at hype, but I don't think he was responsible for much if any of the substance.

 

[Rat]

Running Windows on a Mac in VMWare Fusion almost negates the maintenance deficit, however, as I can just revert to a good snapshot when it inevitably corrupts itself.

Corrupts itself? Why oh why do my PCs never corrupt themselves?

 

[Rat]

I think he took credit for several things that he wasn't responsible for.

Which is why I thought the comparison to Edison was particularly apposite. I have little doubt that in a hundred years, Jobs will be known as the inventor of the computer and the mp3 player, in the same way as Edison is now known as the inventor of the light bulb and god knows what else.

 

[John Albert]

I can only sit back in amazement, thinking about the wonderful hand Jobs had in stimulating the growth of a new paradigm, and what a tremendous blow Jobs dealt to the status quo.

 

[PhreePhly]

I have had the opposite experience.

When I look at the amount of time I spend maintaining the Macs I have owned (many of them) and the amount of time I have spent maintaining the PCs I have owned (8 of them, including two right now, Linux machines don't count for this) I have to say that as I value my time at my discount billing rate ($40/hr), A windows PC quickly removes the cost difference and begins to be a bad deal.

I must just be really good then. I have been running Windows since version 2. I skipped the Win9X generation in favor of the NT branch, so maybe that explains my lack of complaints. I have built and supported hundreds of Windows workstations in the past decades and just didn't have that many problems.

Look this is really the wrong thread for this discussion, so I'm going to stop now. I really don't care what kind of computer or OS you (general you) use.